First Macedonian war
As Rome was distracted with Carthage in the second Punic war, the relatively powerful country of Macedonia found a chance to expand its territories while the two superpowers struggled. King Phillip V of Macedonia invaded the weak Achaean league (yellow on the map), remnants from the days of ancient Greek city states. However, when Rome lost a decisive battle to the Carthaginian Hannibal at Lake Trasimene, Phillip changed his mind. Illyria had once been an independent state but had been conquered by the Romans. The king of Illyria, Demetrius, had fled to the court of Phillip his ally. When Demetrius learned about the roman defeat, he persuaded Phillip to attack Illyria instead and reclaim his kingdom. Phillip immediately began peace talks with the Achaean league and they drew up the treaty of Naupactus. Phillip’s plan was to take over all of the Balkans and invade Italy from the north, bringing back the days of the great empire of Alexander of Macedonia. Phillip then began to prepare his army for war. He spent the winter of 217–216 BC building a fleet of 100 warships and training men to row them which was a practice that hardly any Macedonian king had ever done before. Macedonia probably lacked the resources to build and maintain the kind of fleet necessary to match the Romans. But the general feeling was that Philip had no hope of fighting the Romans at sea due to a lack of experience and training and also the incredible roman fleet. At any rate, Philip chose to build lembi. These were the small fast galleys used by the Illyrians. They had a single bank of oars and were able to carry 50 soldiers in addition to the rowers. With these, Philip could hope to avoid or evade the much bigger Roman fleet but he hoped it would be preoccupied with Hannibal, and still in its base at Lilybaeum in western Sicily. Philip had in the meantime expanded his territories west along the Apsus river valley, right up to the borders of Illyria. Philip's plan was it seems, to first take the Illyrian coasts, conquer the area between the coasts and Macedonia, and use the new land link to provide a way for reinforcements to cross the narrow straits to Italy which was his final prize. At the beginning of summer of 216 BC, Philip and his fleet left Macedonia, sailed through the Euripus Strait, and then round Cape Malae, before dropping anchor off the Island of Cephalenia , to await word of the location of the Roman fleet. Informed that it was still at Lilybaeum defending Italy, he sailed north to Apollonia in Illyria. However, as the Macedonian fleet neared the island of Sazan, Philip heard a report that some Roman warships had been seen headed for Illyria. Convinced that the entire Roman fleet was sailing to destroy him, Philip ordered an immediate return to north Macedonia. In fact the Romans had sent only a squadron of ten ships, and because of unnecessary alarm, Philip had missed his best chance to achieve his aims in Illyria, returning to Macedon, ashamed. When Phillip heard of another disastrous defeat of roman troops by the Carthaginians at Cannae, Phillip sent ambassadors to ally with Carthage against Rome. They then signed a treaty in the summer of 215 BC they agreed to support and defend each other in times of need and to be enemies to each other's enemies. But crucially they promised support against Rome, and that Hannibal made peace with Rome, Rome would be forced to give up control of the Croatian islands and give Illyria back to Demetrius. Phillip also agreed not to invade Italy when Hannibal, as it was expected, took it over. This put an end to his ideals of a great empire but secured safety for his country. But as Phillip’s ambassador’s sailed back to Macedonia, they were captured by the Romans and they discovered the secret treaty. In the late summer of 214 BC, Philip attempted another Illyrian invasion by sea, with a fleet of 120 lembi. He captured Oricum on the coast which was lightly defended, and sailing up the Aous River he besieged Apollonia. Meanwhile the Romans had moved the Balkan fleet from Tarentumin the north to the south to continue the watch on the movements of Philip and a legion had been sentto help, all under the command of the Roman general Marcus Valerius Laevinus. Upon receiving word from Oricum of events in Illyria, Laevinus crossed over with his fleet and army. Landing at Oricum, Laevinus was able to retake the town with little fighting. Laevinus, hearing that Apollonia was also under siege, sent 2000 men under the command of Quintus Naevius Crista, to the mouth of the river. Avoiding Philip's army, Crista was able to enter the city by night unobserved. The following night, catching Philip's forces by surprise, he attacked and routed their camp. Philip, escaping to his ships in the river, made his way over the mountains and back to Macedonia, having burned his fleet and left many thousands of his men that had died or been taken prisoner, along with all of his armies' possessions, behind. Laevinus and his fleet wintered at Oricum. Now Twice thwarted in attempts at invasion of Illyria by sea, and now constrained by Laevinus' fleet in the Adriatic, Philip spent the next two years 213–212 BC making advances in Illyria by land. Keeping clear of the coast, he took the inland towns of Atintania, and Dimale, and subdued the Greek tribe of the Dassaretae and the Illyrian Parthini and at least the southern Ardiaei. He was finally able to gain access to the Adriatic by capturing Lissus and its seemingly impregnable citadel, after which the surrounding territories surrendered. The capture of Lissus rekindled Philip’s hopes of an Italian invasion. However the loss of his fleet meant that Philip could not invade Italy by land and would be dependent on Carthage, who also wanted Italy, for the sea journey. After the loss of much of their Balkan territory, the roman realized the Macedonians were more of a threat than once thought. If allied with the Carthaginians, they could help to invade Italy. Rome was already fighting for her life against Hannibal and had no troops to spare so Laevinus needed an ally. He realized this war would be no more than a distraction to prevent the Macedonians entering Italy. The Aetolians (part of the Achaean league) were growing fed up with the treaty of Naupactus as Phillip failed to deliver his grand plans so they were interested when Laevinus asked then to join him in attacking their traditional enemy, the Macedonians. In 211 BC, an Aetolian assembly was called for discussions with Rome. Laevinus persuaded them that Rome was likely to win the second Punic war and a treaty was signed. The Aetolians would attack Macedonia by land and the Romans by sea. Rome would keep any slaves and other loot taken and Aetolia would receive control of any territory acquired. The treaty also allowed the smaller city states of Elis, Sparta,Messenia and Pergamon, as well as the people of the Illyrian state Taulantii to join if they wanted to. Immediately Laevinus began to conquer all the Macedonian owned islands around Greece. When word reached Phillip about these raids he moved all of his troops to the border with Aetolia expecting invasion. He also began to attack the roman owned Illyria, fearing it would become a foothold into Illyria. He then received a plea for help from the Acarnanians whom the Aetolians were preparing to invade. The far smaller and inferior army of Acarnanians had marched to the border, determined to protect their country. Phillip marched to their aid and the Aetolians withdrew. In the spring of 210 BC, Laevinus sailed from Corcyra with his fleet, and with the Aetolians, captured Phocian Anticyra. Rome enslaved all the residents and Aetolia took possession of the town. The war was going extremely successfully and all the smaller city states joined against Macedonia as the treaty allowed. The Roman fleet together with the Pergamon fleet controlled the sea, and Macedon was threatened on land by the rest of the coalition. The first part of the war was so successful that the legions sent by Rome to help could be withdrawn. However, in 210 BC Phillip began to make advances down though northern Greece again and the Romans returned under the leadership of Publius Sulpicius Galba. In 209 BC the Aetolians invaded the Achaean league and Phillip marched down to protect them. He met the combined roman and Aeolian force and defeated them heavily at Lamia, twice. The Romans and Aetolians were forced to hide inside the city walls, most of their army destroyed. But Phillip was called to a meeting with foreign representatives who wanted to end the war and could not complete the siege. At the meeting ambassadors from Egypt, Rhodes, Athens and Chios asked him to stop the war as it was hurting their trade but he refused. After months of light skirmishing the two armies met again and during the battle Phillip fell from his horse leading a charge. He only just escaped with his life. From that point onwards Phillip realized he had to be defensive rather than offensive until he got back to Macedonia. The next year was spent with the Greek allies leaving the war due to other threats and Phillip and the Romans avoiding each other, sacking Illyria. In 205 BC the Romans realized they had no more allies and had succeeded in stopping Macedonia helping Carthage. They signed the treaty of Pheonice in the spring which brought an end to the first Macedonian war. Category:Macedonian wars